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Jon Paul’s Maritime Diaries

The Maritime Trail Marker from the Wisconsin Historical Society at the Garret Bay Boat launch marks the site of the sunken schooner Fleetwing. The bluff in the background is Table Bluff, which the captain had mistaken for Death’s Door Bluff. Photo by Jon Paul Van Harpen.

I was certified for scuba diving at Murphy Park in the summer of 1972 and Door County was my favorite place to go. The problem was my friends and I did not have a boat and finding a shipwreck close to shore and with public access was difficult. Soon we learned of the wrecks off of Jacksonport and Garret Bay which had public access. This column is about the wonderful times of my youth spent diving Garret Bay and the schooner Fleetwing that sank there and gave many a new diver their first look at a shipwreck.

The Fleetwing was also the subject for David Cooper’s master’s thesis for East Carolina University. David was a native of Ellison Bay who graduated from the University of Madison majoring in archaeology. He went on to study for his master’s degree at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, in the Program in Maritime Studies and Nautical Archaeology. David would go on to become the first Wisconsin State Underwater Archaeologist and started the Maritime Preservation Program through the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Although this picture is attributed to the Fleetwing in many books, the Fleetwing was built as a two-masted vessel and none of her enrollments mention a third mast being installed. Photo from the Door County Maritime Museum.

After the Civil War there was a period of great expansion on the lakes and freight rates on grain more than doubled. Manitowoc businessmen Peter Johnson and Sylvester Goodenow in early 1867 contracted the Rand & Burger Shipyard at Manitowoc to build them a new schooner to engage in the lucrative trade. In February the keel was laid and Henry B. Burger was employed as the master carpenter. By April the vessel was framed and it was launched on August 10, 1867. The Fleetwing would be 136 feet in length, 28.5-foot beam and a depth of hold of 11.6 feet. She would have two masts, an eagle figurehead and round stern of 349.78 gross tons. The Fleetwing could carry 18,000 bushels of grain or 225,000 feet of lumber and was built at a cost of $30,000.

The Fleetwing through the years carried mixed cargos, usually grain, up-bound to Buffalo and coal, lumber or whatever was available down-bound to Chicago and other ports. In the latter part of her life she switched to lumber hauling from northern ports of Lake Michigan to Milwaukee or Chicago. The Fleetwing arrived in Chicago on September 4, 1888 with a load of lumber from Menominee and left for Menominee with a load of sundries. On her return trip she ran aground on Green Island and it took the combined efforts of three tugs to pull her free. Once in Menominee she unloaded her cargo and loaded lumber from the Ludington, Wells and Schaik Mill. She cleared Menominee on September 26 at dusk for Chicago via Death’s Door. Captain James McGraw was not willing to pay the toll at Sturgeon Bay and would rather take the chance on Death’s Door, a passage he had made many times before. The wind was brisk and building to a northwest gale. At the approach to Death’s Door, Captain McGraw mistook Table Bluff for Death’s Door Bluff and changed course to head into Lake Michigan. Before the error was realized the ship struck the rocky beach in Garret Bay under full canvas with such a force as to shear off a mast. The crew waded or swam to shore and reached the home of Andrew and Mary Nelson.

Site plan of the Fleetwing derived from David Cooper’s master’s thesis. From the Wisconsin Historical Society.

The next day the Fleetwing was found to be in bad shape. She had nine feet of water in her eleven-foot hold and a dispatch was sent to Sturgeon Bay for assistance. The tug Spalding left Sturgeon Bay on September 30 to rescue the beached schooner. When the tug arrived the deck lumber had already been removed and a pump was put onboard to float the vessel. Another storm came in from the northeast with such force the Spalding had to seek refuge in Eagle Harbor. When she returned all that could be saved was the lumber; the Fleetwing was in pieces and could not be saved. The vessel had only $3,000 in insurance. The captain had spent $6,000 for a rebuild the previous winter and said he was offered $8,000 for her before the expenditure.

Garret Bay is beautiful on a nice day and many times you will see divers suiting up by the boat ramp for a dive on the Fleetwing. As you enter the water you swim out to a rock ledge were the water drops to about 10 feet down to a sand bottom. As you head east you run into a couple of large wooden cribs filled with rock from the old pier. Shortly after the cribs you come to the centerboard of the vessel and a small section of framing. A little north of that you can see a large section of the ship’s side. Going east a little further is the keel, which is very shallow, with exposed frames and the remains of the centerboard trunk. Adventurous divers can take a compass reading northeast of the keel and swim about 500 feet to a large section in about 25 feet of water, which features some of the bow and side of the ship. It is a wonderful dive/snorkel trip and visibility can be excellent. But divers should take a dive buoy and flag to alert any boaters of your position. This is also a good kayaker spot and most of the shallow sections are visible from the surface.